Mplus Users Guide v6.. - Muthén & Muthén

CHAPTER 15The USEVARIABLES option identifies the observed dependent andindependent variables that are used in an analysis. Variables withspecial functions such as grouping variables do not need to be includedon the USEVARIABLES statement unless they are new variablescreated using the DEFINE command or the DATA transformationcommands. Following is an example of how to specify theUSEVARIABLES option:USEVARIABLES ARE gender income agefirst;Variables on the USEVARIABLES statement must follow a particularorder. The order of the variables is important because it determines theorder of variables used with the list function. The set of originalvariables from the NAMES statement of the VARIABLE command mustbe listed before the set of new variables created using the DEFINEcommand or the DATA transformation commands. Within the two setsof original and new variables, any order is allowed.If all of the original variables plus some of the new variables are used inthe analysis, the keyword ALL can be used as the first entry in theUSEVARIABLES statement. This indicates that all of the originalvariables from the NAMES statement of the VARIABLE command areused in the analysis. The keyword ALL is followed by the names of thenew variables created using the DEFINE command or the DATAtransformation commands that will be used in the analysis. Following isan example of how to specify the USEVARIABLES option for thissituation:USEVARIABLES = ALL hd1 hd2 hd3;where ALL refers to the total set of original variables and hd1, hd2, andhd3 are new variables created using the DEFINE command or the DATAtransformation commands.MISSING VALUESMISSINGThe MISSING option is used to identify the values or symbol in theanalysis data set that are treated as missing or invalid. Any numericvalue and the non-numeric symbols of the period, asterisk (*), or blank484